"To serve Karma, one must repay good Karma to others. To serve Karma well, one must deliver bad Karma where it is due."

Prologue

Change was happening. The idea of change is something that has always been considered undesirable, ever since the Dark Ages. The thought of shifting one's comfort for the adaptation of a new experience doesn't quite sit well on the stomach. The more it shifts around in one's head, the more it burns holes into your conscience.

There was change in the air. Heimdall, of all people, could feel it. He had a more personal connection with the universe, a kind of relationship that almost allowed him to reach out and skim the surfaces of worlds with his fingertips. But as much as he had skimmed, something different was swirling around him in the atmosphere. It ripped at his nerves and frayed around his logic. He adjusted his grip of the massive sword and coped with this new sensation. Gazing out into the cosmos, he decided, ought to help.

As much as he clenched his jawline and focused on the stars, the swirling changes wouldn't go away.

On top of that, the Bifrost suddenly had the random urge to go and start itself up.

The nerve of some things.

The massive portal rod began to spin quickly, gaining speed and catching huge crackles of free energy that bounced along the inner walls of the Bifrost. Heimdall took a step back, watching with inquisitive golden eyes. The air began to swirl dramatically as the Bifrost braced itself to let someone- or something- through the gates to Asgard. And braced with it was Heimdall, standing ready to encounter whatever was coming through. He clenched his teeth together when the energy level intensified.

Then a blue beam of starch light rocketed down onto one of the several spaces of transportation. In one final glorious strain, the Bifrost (having delivered its parcel) slowed down until it curved back to its normal position. All was calm.

Heimdall stayed tense, his lips pressed together, as he looked at what was left behind. A small child, a little girl, clenching her legs up to her chest and darting her eyes around the inner workings of the Bifrost. Heimdall sighed and dropped the sword from his shoulder to rest the tip on one of the large steps.

She was adorable.

And, after taking a trip through space, Heimdall expected her to be more afraid. But she wasn't. The girl, who must have only been 6 years of age, had chin-length black hair and stunning greenish gray eyes. Such features perfectly set off her pale skin and almond shaped eyes, which stayed wide and curious.

"How did you manage to sneak through my Bifrost without my permission?" Heimdall almost asked the question sweetly, bending his tall frame over slightly to see her small one.

"They sent me here." She said, almost inaudibly. And with that, she stood up and brushed off her simple clothing. A pair of very balloon-like pants, simple and white; with an India-designed shirt that extended to her knees. She threw back a thin-sheen scarf that covered the majority of her neck. "I hate these clothes." She suddenly spoke out, sensing Heimdall as he examined her apparel. "I hate this color, white. I always have. But when I ask for black, they tell me no."

"Who has sent you here?" He tried again. "I did not open the Bifrost for you."

"They did." The girl pointed upwards with one small index finger. Her hands were painted ornately with flowery designs that stretched up to cover her forearm. The extensive leaves didn't look painted at all- but permanent. And the colors shifted with her skin. The ornate paintings were her skin. "So I know the way when I come back. When I'm older."

Heimdall watched her carefully as she walked slowly toward the exit and looked out at the Rainbow Bridge. Her fingers flexed. Her eyes skipped up to the Asgardian palace that sat proudly against the rich evening sky. She looked at the palace with all the childish wonder a girl like her would be expected to have. Almost as if something was clicking around inside her head.

"Are you Elven?" he asked. Keeping her attention seemed the best way to distract her from the things of Asgard. Whoever sent her must have had some sort of other motive. Either that or a fine passion for other planets, which didn't seem as likely.

"No." The statement came quickly, and she didn't even give Heimdall the decency of looking back up at him. "My name is KrishnaLan." She turned up to look at him all of a sudden. There was something glistening in her young eyes that Heimdall was all too familiar with, and it made his hands clench up. He'd seen it before in a young boy about her age. If she was half as mischievous, things could get pressurized quickly.

"My job is to make people suffer for bad things they do." She cocked her head to one side. "Karma, they call it. I'm in charge of Karma."

"KrishnaLan: little Krishna." The Guardian repeated slowly, letting the word ease out of his mouth. He was becoming very uncomfortable with her presence as he began to realize her origin. "You come from the Hindu Gods. They have sent you here to Asgard." KrishnaLan stayed still as she watched the moving colors in the Bridge. A dark figure was approaching from a distance off. A few strands of her thin black hair fluttered in front of her face, riding effortlessly on a breeze.

"Have you ever seen the insides of a person?" her voice was solemn and suddenly very dark. She seemed to stop and consider each word that she said, as if angling them to specifically crawl up The Guardian's spine. Heimdall inserted the sword into its position to prepare the Bifrost for the girl's leave. It was time for her to go back to where she came from. Such a small child was earning him a great deal of chills. She flipped around to look at him. "I have. I've seen the insides of a person. Because I was the one that got to turn the person inside out." She ran one finger over the elaborate henna details of her skin.

"You are leaving now." Heimdall instructed. The girl walked back over to the spot she arrived without any further coaxing.

"That's fine. I already know how to get here." KrishnaLan, small and filled with a glowering shimmer, sat back down on the panel; her ankle bracelets chiming along with the action. "I'll come back." For a final time, KrishnaLan glanced up into Heimdall's gaze and a crooked smile crawled its way over both of her cheeks. Her eyes narrowed.

"I am sending you back to where you originated." Heimdall started up the Bifrost. He was finished with these trivial conversations.

"No. Send me to earth." KrishnaLan's eyes went to the top of the Bifrost, as she examined the inner workings of it. She tucked a piece of shiny hair behind her ear. "I need to learn more about Laufeyson from there."

"Laufeyson?" Heimdall asked. "The son of the Frost Giant?"

"One day you'll get it."

"Then to Midgard you shall go." And in a flash of cracking blue light that filled the Bifrost with the glory of it, the girl was taken away. Such a short conversation between them, a simple exchange of words, but Heimdall could almost feel the small girl's laughter whirring in his head like the sounds of her ankle trinkets.

"Heimdall?" The Guardian was sick of small children's voices by now, but he turned around to face his dark countenance toward young Loki. He slid into the Bifrost and glanced up at the slowly whirring pieces as they grinded to a halt. Loki scrambled up a few of the steps, his dark hair shimmering in the golden light. "Who was it that just came through the Bifrost?"

"I need not tell you."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Loki sneered up at him, his adolescent nose wrinkling up.

"I fear that she lies in your future."

"So it was a girl, then?" Loki hummed gently, getting slowly antagonized by Heimdall's cool demeanor. "You are afraid of a girl?" To which Loki chucked darkly. "Even I am not afraid of girls."

"It is not the child I fear." Heimdall turned his head up, ever so slightly, to look into the sky through the tip of the Bifrost. "Rather the force she holds in her hands, and the way she is sent to use it."

Loki crossed his eyes in mockery. "Well, while all of this is thoroughly entertaining…" He hopped down the stairs and started toward the rainbow bridge. "There's a jousting competition being held in the square, and I want to see people bleed. Have you ever seen the insides of a person before?" Heimdall's jaw tensed. Young Loki smirked and continued walking away, trivially picking up a black feather that rested on the Bridge and flicking his fingers through it. "I want to."